Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1887-07-22

head OF SWauk and sent our team back
to Ellensburgh, having been fortunate
enough to fall in with Messrs. Dona-
hue and Tweed, two miners who were
going to Peshastin with pack train
OF seven animals, and were kind
enough to carry our blankets and sup
plies in for us, the supplies consisting
of three boxes of sardines, a loaf of rye
bread and few bottles of beer-very
few as We thought before we got back
to that place where we had cached
another box OF sardines, loaf of bread
and another few bottles of beer. From
the head of Swauk to
THE CAMP ON PEsHAsTIN
The distance is called about eight
miles, the first two of which took us
over tolerable high mountain. On
this mountain We were Overtaken by
a thunder storm, winding up with
snow and leaving us drenching wet.
However, We trudged on, reaching
Donahue and Tweed's cabin about s
O'Clock in the evening. A good fire
and good miners supper soon put us
to rights.
On Peshastin we found many cabins
and all the usual evidences that it had
once been quite an active camp, both
in placer and quartz mining, but now
the cabins were deserted and the
wheels stood motionless on their
| gudgeOns. John Ernest, in addition
to the two miners already mentioned,
constituted the sole population. The
placers OF the Peshastin were worked
many years ago, but with what sue
cess we had no means of ascertaining.
Its canyon is deep, walled in upon
either side by rugged and lofty noun
tains. Its course is nearly north and
south, and it is crossed by four we'll
defined quartz ledges within width
of 1000 feet, running parallel east and
west. All of these ledges have been
discovered on both sides of the Peshas-
tin and have been distinctly traced
westward to Niger creek, dis
tance of about two miles on an air
line
ALL OF THEM BEAR GOLD,
And upon most, if not all of them,
shoots of ore have been found which
have paid for working by the primitive
and inadequate processes which have
been employed. Upon
THE PEsHAsTIN LEDGE
Is situated the Cooper and Lockwood
claim, OF which so much has been
said. The spot worked by them is
near the summit of the mountain di-
viding Peshastin and Niger creek and
on the Peshastin slope. Their ore was
packed on animals down the noun
tains over very steep trail, a distance
of about one and half miles where it
was reduced in an arasta. The shoot,
or pocket, worked by them was about
fifty feet long and thirty feet high, and
from the best information we could
get they obtained from this rock
all the way from $4,000 to 100000
Messrs. Donahue and Tweed, who now
own the Cooper and Lockwood claim,
are at present working it by the same
process making fair wages, with the
chances before them of striking an
other rich pocket or shoot. 1t is only
the soft rock, as they call it, bear
ing free gold, from which these min
ers can get any returns by the
process which they are obliged to
use of grinding the ore in arastas.
A large portion of the quartz car
ried by all of these veins is metallic
and the gold cannot be extracted ex-
cept by the processes used at reduction
works.
THE EAGLE, OR BLINN NINE,
As it is commonly known here, ad-
joins the Cooper and Lockwood claim
on the west and runs thence west
down to and across Niger creek. We
spent day in going over the Niger
creek mountain, examining the mine
and returning to the Peshastin, guided
by Mr.. Donahue, who in the true spirit
of hospitality stopped his work to ac-
company us. Though the distance
travelled did not exceed three miles,
Judging from the time and exertion
it required to take us over the Niger
creek mountain, we variously estimat-
ed it to be from five to fifteen times as
high as the Cascades at the Green
river pass our lightweight man plac-
ing it at the former figures, and our
heaviest weight placing it at the latter
The reader may smile at this mode of
calculating attitudes, but it is really
the principal one upon which all
things are estimated and measured by
those who depend upon their own
senses and judgment instead of resort
ing to mathematics and scientific in
struments in fine every man meas
ures the things about him with his
own yard-stick. To one the full moon
looks to be of the size of dinner
plate, to another it is as large as half
bushel measure, whilst third COM
pares it to cart-wheel. And so with
the size of a dollar. A thin-blooded
man pronounces it cold where the full
blooded one swears that it is hot. A
weakly man, harnessed to twenty
five pound pack, compares it to a roll
of SO much lead; the strong man says
that it is as light as feather and so
! on. The placers Of